Hot answers tagged electronic-items
16
Millions of smartphones and 10's (if not 100's) of thousands of Kindles/E-book readers go through airport scanners every day. So far I believe the number that have apparently been damaged by airport scanner stands at about 2 for Kindle, and I've never heard of a smartphone being damaged by any form of scanners. (And in the case of the Kindles there's ...
15
One of the simplest, cleanest and cheapest solutions that I've seen is a couple I met who were travelling around South America. They'd back up onto a second SD card as well. When a card was full, they'd simply put it in an envelope and mail it home. Very cheap and very easy, and pretty reliable. Send it registered mail if you don't trust it.
Once their ...
14
Don't pack anything. You'll find much cheaper, and probably better, plug adapters all over India. Expect to pay Rs 15-30 for simple ones that just accommodate US-style plugs, and Rs 40-50 for full universal ones. You can find them at any general store/convenience store in major cities and tourist locations, but might get a better selection at electrician's ...
14
Technically, they are not permitted in-flight. Bluetooth is a form of wireless communication, and all wireless communication is banned during airborne operations by the FCC and the FAA.
As mentioned by @AnkurBanerjee in this post, FAA Advisory Circular 91.21-1B covers this regulation.
13
From the US Customs and Border patrol website:
As Secretary Chertoff noted in a recent op-ed, "Of the approximately 400 million travelers who entered the country last year, only a tiny percentage were referred to secondary baggage inspection…[and] of those, only a fraction had electronic devices that may have been checked."
So, (if they are being ...
13
There are essentially two ways to check if your appliance or its charger work on 220V. Usually the fine print on the adapter will give the range, saying something like: "Rated input:AC 100-240V". If the voltage of the country falls in the range specified, you will be fine.
If you can't find the voltage on the charger, try downloading the instruction manual ...
12
X Rays don't penetrate metal. Circuit boards have a lot of metal and solder, making it easy to conceal items within. If the TSA can't see it, they get nervous. Hence the 'take out your laptop.' (Why they don't require that of iPads, I don't know.)
Now, all this being said, you can get bags that have laptop compartments. The only requirement is that ...
12
When power outlets were first installed on airliners, they used a special adapter called EmPower, which looked like this:
The airlines obviously thought that frequent flyers would be happy to buy a new kind of adapter for all their gizmos. This turned out not to be entirely true... nobody wanted to buy these new stupid adapters, and the airlines ...
12
To tackle the second part of your question first, we have previously covered this ground on WiFi / 3G coverage in Europe in the following questions:
Are there companies that offer worldwide WiFi roaming for a fixed fee? (I might also point out specifically here to look at FON, linked to by Andra in the question itself, in addition to the answers.)
Is there ...
11
GPS devices do not have an active transmitter (for devices that don't go online to fetch map data, that is); they work by calculating time signals broadcast at low power by a constellation of satellites. Since there's no active transmitter and GPS signals are broadcast anyway (modern aircraft navigation systems do use GPS onboard), a watch or a camera ...
11
I agree with @R.. I spent over four months in Delhi in 2009, and while I did bring over a couple of plug adapters with me, it's much easier and cheaper to just buy them there. Any market will have them. (Just remember that the price of almost anything in India is negotiable!)
In addition to buying a couple of plug adapters, you can also purchase a universal ...
10
I don't know about a specific Kindle version, but if I have a limited number of destinations with some long WikiTravel articles, I just save the pages:
Option 1, in Google's Chrome browser open the print preview and then save the page as PDF, then just copy that PDF to your Kindle, it's okay in vertical screen rotation and very readable in horizontal.
...
10
I've used a good few of those fancy Toto do it all bidet sprayer dryer toilets, most of which (as the toilet isn't designed for a single gender) have the flush noise function. Department stores are a good bet, as are mid market restaurants.
It's really nothing to write home about though. It's the sound of a flushing toilet, which I'm sure you've heard ...
10
Yes you can, portable electronic devices (PEDS) are divided into few categories, some of them are:
PEDs allowed all the times: such as some medical devices. They are allowed during all phases of the flight, for example some medical oxygen devices.
PEDs allowed during cruise: Most of the electronic devices are in this category, you can use them during the ...
9
Indonesia uses European-style two-pin round plugs ('C'-type is the most common variant found):
Voltage is at 220 V 50 Hz (as opposed to 110 V 60 Hz in US). Most modern electronic equipment that has auto-sensing capability should work without needing a voltage converter, you will need a plug adapter though which can buy cheap online. As for Apple products ...
9
I think there are two views here.
Firstly, the backpacker as we know it is changing, or splitting. There are still the 'true', 'hardcore' backpackers, who want to hitchhike everywhere with two pairs of socks and three shirts and a sleeping roll on their back. That's great, but it's not for everyone.
As hostels become more ubiquitous, wifi appears ...
8
Generally it's so that they can check the metal device that it is, and that nothing else is hidden in it. Same with SLR cameras on occasion, and I've been asked in the past to turn both of them on to prove they actually work. But generally they just want a clear and unobstructed view of all the workings, especially to see the harddisk platter. That caused ...
8
I do see your point about the collaboration among people of different power types:
(Yes, the rightmost plug is going through three adaptors. It's from 5 years ago, but I believe that one is mine. The picture was taken in South Africa: SA to UK adapters and UK to US adapters were plentiful, other combinations not so much. After that trip I started carrying ...
8
I went to India (from the US) last year and brought one of these.
It's only an adapter, not a voltage converter. It will work with your laptop, phone charger, etc. if they support 110V and 220V. If you have devices (electric shaver, hair dryer, etc.) that only operate on 110V this won't work. Some "international" hotels will have a 110V outlet in the ...
8
To keep connection with home I don't use fancy gadgets that could get stolen. I prefer instead:
8
Unless your power supply is DC (i.e. you will only be plugging into an airplane, auto, or marine DC socket), there is no escaping the brick, which contains a transformer for reducing voltage and converting current from the wall into something the laptop can use. As it operates based on its physical properties (e.g. size of core, number of coils), reducing ...
8
I wouldn't worry about it. Other than wikileaks activists, I've never heard of anyone having the data on their electronic devices searched when entering/departing the U.S. or Europe.
If it's going to cause you anxiety and make you act strange, however, it would be better to delete the files just to give you peace of mind. This is not because there is any ...
8
You got it wrong, there are few types of outlets onboard airplanes:
Utility outlets: They are used by the ground/fleet services to clean the aircraft on ground prior to passengers boarding. Usually it will be used for strong vacuum cleaners which requires higher voltage/frequency and can damage electronics not designed for these outlets. This is the type ...
7
Air Canada has power in economy. It is a standard North American plug. There was a brief time when in-air power required a special airline-only adapter, similar to the way headphones had that strange two-prong plug. But I think these days if there's power it will be a "normal" plug for that airline. The only adapter you are likely to need is one you would ...
7
It's very hard to make a universal socket that's compliant with all the safety standards that would apply. Eg in the UK BS 1363 sockets must have shutters over the L and N holes and plugs must be fused.
The simple answer, if you are travelling to many countries, is often to take your domestic power strip but change the plug on it to a IEC 60320 inlet. This ...
7
It's not very convenient but (assuming it's a desktop) I would disassemble it into parts and box them individually. I brought a desktop myself from Portugal to the Netherlands this way (in my checked in luggage) and it was fine, nothing was damaged.
To be fair, the only thing that's at risk from the tall falls and such is the HDD and I guess you can carry ...
7
I think it depends on the airline you're travelling with, and from what airport.
Some airlines have launched mobile boarding passes (exact name may vary between airlines). With this, you're able to call up your boarding pass on your phone, and the barcode on it can be scanned in at the various points where a boarding pass is needed. As the airport ...
7
There are no rules, either TSA, FAA, airline or otherwise, that would stop you from taking a wireless mouse (or most any other "transmitting" device) through security and onto a plane.
However once you're on the plane there are rules specific to radio transmitting devices, which a wireless mouse is.
With very few exceptions, the rules are broken into two ...
7
If there's any piece of equipment that you're in doubt about, plug it on a voltage converter. Step-down converters start around $10; beware that cheaper models won't support much load (one electronic device should be ok for even the most basic models, but not all of them on a power strip). If your converter does both directions, make sure to set the switch ...
7
You mention 120 GB of data, and "long holidays" so I'll assume that's for something on the order of two months. The exact numbers aren't really important, but the magnitude is: that works out to roughly 2 GB data per day, on average. Obviously, you may shoot more some days and less during other days, but that's not particularly important either.
Simply ...
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